No One Trusts the Security of the Internet of Things

February 9, 2016 | 13:46

Rob Joyce at Usenix's Enigma conference

The security of the internet remains rickety and now we're starting to hook up physical objects like cars, smart meters and home automation devices to it. With the emergence of the Internet of Things, network intrusion can take a whole new level of dangerous tempering and creepiness.

The security of the internet remains rickety. That point was rammed home in the summer of 2013, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that just about the entire global network was pwned by the US National Security Agency (NSA). So far, the primary use for the internet has been information exchange, so the poor state of network security has mostly resulted in data breaches. But now we are starting to hook up physical objects like cars, smart meters and home automation devices. With the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), network intrusion can take a whole new level of dangerous tempering and creepiness.
Creepy, for instance, is a random internet user having access to footage of your networked camera. I say random internet user because it requires little skill to do so. Shodan, the search engine for devices, makes it easy for people to find insecure webcams that aren't password protected.
The number of vulnerable webcams is estimated to run in the millions, Ars Techni...